The McArthur River watershed floods during the monsoon, and perhaps the Aboriginal people keep track over tens of thousands of years, relating the severity and length of flooding to the health of the people and their land. When a mining company wants to put an open pit zinc, lead and copper mine in the center of the river course, build a giant 28-foot high earthen berm wall around the open pit to try to keep monsoon water out, and dig a 5.5 kilometer diversion channel to re-route the river away from its normal channel, the corporation is clearly rising to a major engineering challenge. Do the engineers care if it all fails?

Or is this another experiment in domination and control posing as science and certainty? In these aerial photos, there are two prominent sacred sites visible in addition to the channel of the river itself, which the local people revere as the dreamtime pathway of the Rainbow Serpent. The mining company has fenced off the sacred sites and threatens to fine any employee who trespasses or defaces the sites. Keep an eye on rainfall totals for Australia’s Northern Territory as we head into the wet season…